Mr. Ian Martin:

We employ 20 people in my company and we would need a fund of €8,000 to €10,000 sitting in the bank if all our employees were to take one week's sick leave in the year. We run a service business and may need to employ a person for the day, but they will only work for cash. Nobody will work legitimately for a single day. It is very hard on the service industry to get casual workers.

One of the suggestions I have been making on public procurement is that one should be banned from buying anything off contract. If one goes to tender for a computer system, that should be it. If one wants a different printer one cannot have it. People who have a public procurement contract make the money on the extras. A small business cannot afford to tender to make a loss with the hope that it may pick up the extras later. If one bans all extras on public procurement, one will see prices going up but it will mean that Irish companies can then compete with the multinationals that have big deep pockets.